Memory Dump of a Computer System

1. A method for generating a memory dump of a memory of a computer system, comprising the steps of: loading an application executable into the memory of the computer system for execution as an application runtime; the application runtime allocating memory of the computer system for the storage of application data; the application runtime loading a description of a structure of the application data into the memory of the computer system, wherein the description of a structure of the application data is stored in a binary format and includes one or more data item descriptions, and wherein each of the one or more data item descriptions include a data item name that is a character representation of a name of a data item, a data item type that is a representation of a name of a type of a data item, a number of fields that is a numeric value corresponding to a number of data fields within a data item, a data item size that is a numeric value corresponding to a size of a data item measured in bytes or bits to accommodate a variable size of the data item, and a data item offset that is a numeric value corresponding to an offset of a data item from a beginning of a data structure containing the data item; and the computer system generating a memory dump of the memory of the computer system, said memory dump including the description and the application data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the description of a structure of the application data is platform independent.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the description of a structure of the application data includes an eyecatcher field.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the application data includes an eyecatcher field.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the memory dump is stored in a file.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the application data is defined using a data structure.

7. A method for reading a memory dump of a memory of a computer system, comprising the steps of: locating a description of a structure of application data in the memory dump, wherein the description of a structure of the application data is stored in a binary format and includes one or more data item descriptions, and wherein each of the one or more data item descriptions include a data item name that is a character representation of a name of a data item, a data item type that is a representation of a name of a type of a data item, a number of fields that is a numeric value corresponding to a number of data fields within a data item, a data item size that is a numeric value corresponding to a size of a data item measured in bytes or bits to accommodate a variable size of the data item, and a data item offset that is a numeric value corresponding to an offset of a data item from a beginning of a data structure containing the data item; reading said description; defining a runtime data structure in accordance with the description; locating application data in the memory dump; and reading said application data into said runtime data structure.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the description of a structure of the application data includes an eyecatcher field.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said locating a description step includes locating the eyecatcher field.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the application data includes an eyecatcher field.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said locating application data step includes locating the eyecatcher field.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the description of a structure of the application data is platform independent.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the memory dump is stored in a file.